Personal Injury: Distracted Driving

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and other government and private organizations have always indicated and explained why car accidents are avoidable occurrences. Negligence, which leads to inattentiveness and/or recklessness, is always the number one reason why millions of drivers, motorcycle and bicycle riders, and pedestrians continue to be severely injured or killed on US roads; but negligence can easily be prevented. This very critical failure to ensure that nothing is amiss can lead: to a car manufacturer selling a defective vehicle or sub-standard vehicular parts; local government agencies or federal government channels in ensuring that US roads and bridges are well built, maintained and repaired if with defects; and, drivers violating traffic safety rules by drinking while under the influence of alcohol, overspeeding, driving recklessly, using a handheld phone while driving and allowing distractions to get the better of him/her while behind the wheel. There may only be a minor number of drivers who have driven through a red light, never slowed down or stopped where there are signs stating these, have made dangerous, improper overtakes, never used signal lights and/or tailgated another vehicle. But definitely, almost all drivers, whatever type of vehicle they handle, have been distracted while on the road. Distracted driving is characterized by the diversion of a driver’s attention from the road due to another activity. Some of these activities can be:

Texting

Eating

Conversing with a passenger

Grooming

Reading a map for directions

Using a navigation system

Watching a video

Adjusting a radio, CD player, or any portable electronic device

Driving distractions are so normal that a driver, most often than not, will never even realize that he/she is already being distracted. While driving, one’s attention should be focused just on the road – a rule that every driver knows, but which many only continue to know. Any distraction can endanger the driver, his/her passenger/s, pedestrians and all other motorists on the road. There are more than 3,000 deaths and about 400,000 injuries annually due to distracted driving, according to the NHTSA and CDC. Victims have the legal right to sue those liable for the accident, for the compensation that they deserve due to the harm they have been made to suffer. Negligence is the absence of care, leading to accidents which are definitely preventable. It wouldn’t hurt if one were to start caring for others.